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‘8. » Sem, May 24 189 Tyan Vay Beto

et your chil participate in feeding process

Being 2 parent is a tough job — but Dr. 1. Berry Brazelton can help.
°Brazelton, ‘a leading pediatrician, will be writing a parenting column in
each issue of the Lynn Valley Echo, discussing such topics as sibling ri-
valry, how to get your child to sleep, daycare, discipline, and more.

FEEDING A child is both essential and a symbolic act.of

nurturing.- It can-cement the relationship between parent
and. child at the beginning and end of the day. For a single,
working parent feeding can be both a great joy and a time

of struggle.

At the age of nine months Tina
began to be increasingly terrible to

feed.

She tossed her head back. and
forth as her mother Alice brought
spoonfuls of mush to her mouth.
Then she put her thumb in her
mouth and grabbed for Alice’s
‘hand, smearing food all over Alice
and the table. She turned her head
away. She tried’ to, stand in her
chair.

Alice felt increasingly angry. She

was tired. She had put in a long
day teaching and at her studio. She
wanted her own supper, yet had to
put up with this difficult, negative
behavior.

When she called me for advice, I
made some suggestions that I knew
would work.

' “Give her a piece of toast or a
cracker to hold in one hand and a
spoon in the other. She'll imitate
you with them and they will give
her something to do. She can par-
ticipate in the feeding. Right now,
you are making’ her too passive.
Wear a raincoat if you need to, so
she can experiment with her spoon.
‘*An even more important strat-

egy now is to let her feed herself.

soft bits of food. Her pincer grasp
of thumb and forefinger is devel-
oping und she'll love doing it. Give
her only. one or two.soft bits of
food’ at a time so she can spend

some time learning how to pick .

them up. She'll love that.”
Meanwhile, you can feed her
baby food. She'll accept all you
want to shove into her while she’s
occupied with her newest learning

Ecology
centre
offers
events

From page 7

children aged eight to 12. Learn

how to attract butterflies to your
yard. -Help the Ecology. Centre
Plant a’: butterfly. garden. . Pre-

"Svednesdsy, June 7, 1:30 to 2:30
p.m. — Bug Safari for Pre-
schoolers and parents. Come stalk-

‘. ing and trapping ‘‘big game’’ in-

sects in Lynn Canyon Park. Pre-

-) Saturday, June 10, 10 a.m. to

~Shore Garden Contest.

\ are

2 p.m. — Maplewood Clean-Up.
Participate in this annual conser-
vation project at Maplewood Flats,
co-sponsored by the Vancouver
Natural History Society and. the
Ecology Centre.
Organic Garden Tours

© Saturday, June 10 at 2 p.m. —

Get into your ncighbor’s backyard...
Barbara : Willington’s:: garden in -

‘West .Vancouver -won the 1986
Award of Excellence in the North
°
pesticides or herbicides are used.
Greenhouse vegetables and flowers
: grown using organic tech-
niques. Adults only. Pre-register.

. 7 4.© Sunday, June 1 at 2 p.m. —
‘Florence Nye has lived. in Lynn

Valley: since .1913. Her. garden
received honorable © mention | in

1987 and Best Pioneer Garden in —

1988 in ‘the North Shore Garden
Contest.. She = has . worked her
garden for many years and helps

g by using newspaper. for °

mutch. and old_tires for, planters.

5 (Adults only, limited registration.) ©:

-:. Environment; Week is sponscred

by Environment Canads. For snore
‘information call the Ecology Cen- am
ke tre at, 987-5922. we

skill, finger feeding.””

These manoeuvres worked. They
reinforced Tina’s new irdependent
skills and wouid ‘ead eventually to

-. mo one is on han:

A single, working parent is likely
to ignore cz’ hurry through these
signs of independence as long as
they’re subtle. Fr- a single parent
to observe the
struggle, to say casually, ‘“Why
don’t you let her feed herself?’’

li’s obvious when you think
about it. But a harried mother or
father isn’t likely to think of this
as the issue.

I tried to help Alice see that Tina
was searching for her own identity.

In feeding, it was important to
Tina that she feel in control.’

We discussed the four basic dai-

FAMILIES

T. BERRY BRAZELTON, M.D.

her feeding herself.

From eight months on, a ‘child’s
goal is to learn to feed himself. If a
parent continues to treat him as
helpless and passive, his resistance
to being fed will grow, and the in-
gredicnts of a feeding problem will
all be there -- unnecessarily.

At Lynn Valley Insurance Agency Ltd.,
a local independent insurance agency,

ly requirements in the second year
of a toddler and talked about the
many detours that get set up if a
parent finds herse!f in a battle over
them.

For example, a pint of milk (16
ounces) or its equivalent in cheese,
yogurt or ice cream is important.

But even that might become im-
possible to feed Tina sometimes.
Then liquid calcium could be given
in juice or in some other beverage
to cover her calcium requirements
until she stopped refusing milk
products.

Two ounces of iron-containing
protein such as a patty of meat or
an egg, would cover her iron and
protein requirements through the
negative second year.

If she refused them she. could
have an egg milkshake once a day,
or an iron substitute couid be add-
ed to her food.

Such vegetables as beans, with a
high iron content, might help. A
multivitamin preparation would
cover her requirements for
vegetables for any period of refus-

‘One ounce of Fruit juice or a

piece of fresh fruit would cover her
vitamin C requirements.

If these four areas are covered iu
some way — even by substitutes — _.
let the child have her head in refus-
ing everything else.

She will refuse one thing at one
time, another food at another and
sooner or later, she’l] be ready to
eat like everyone else.

I assured Alice that Tina would
end this ‘period of negativism
toward food herseif by the age of
three years, if it-did not become a
source of tension between them.

Learning to eat a variety of
foods is not a goal at this age. It

‘only becomes cne by the age of

four or five years.

There is a more important agen-
da for Tina — to learn about her
own independence. ue

ke

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«. . . . Le
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